The musical tradition applies to airports, too, in Nashville

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Members of the audience dash off suddenly during his show. Others talk on cell phones, read novels or wolf down sandwiches.

John Bontempi takes it all in stride. He strums his guitar and sings another tune near the clanking baggage carousel at Nashville International Airport.

"It took all of history just to make you mine," he warbles from under a dark cowboy hat.

Bontempi is among the 90 or so professional musicians who perform at the airport in its push to add "local flavor," a break from the chain gift shops and restaurants in airports from Miami to Seattle.

"We're the best gig in town," proclaimed Cathy Holland, the airport's director of community affairs and customer service.

The musicians tend to agree, even if the audience is antsy and the overhead announcements get annoying.

"It's a lot of fun. You get a lot of different people coming through," says Bontempi, a singer-songwriter who plays all original material at his monthly two-hour airport shows. "I've had people on their cell phones walk by and say 'Hey, they even have music here - listen' and they hold up their cell phone."

Nashville already has one of the busiest airports in the country for live music, but this month it will liven up even more with the opening of Tootsie's, an offshoot of the Tootsie's Orchid Lounge honky tonk where Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson once swapped songs and cold beers.

No one knows for certain, but Nashville International and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas probably have more live music than any other airport in the country, according to the trade group Airports Council International.

The cities share a rich musical heritage. Nashville's reputation as the capital of country music goes back to the start of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1920s. Austin's thriving independent music scene grew from country roots in the '70s and is celebrated by thousands of music industry representatives and fans who flock to the annual South By Southwest Festival.

In Nashville, the airport began offering music in the early '90s as country was hitting a growth spurt. Today, musicians of every stripe play its five stages most days of the week.

For singers and musicians like Bontempi, the airport remains a sweet gig. For one thing, it pays ($32.50 per hour for the side musicians, $65 per hour for the frontman), which is no gimme in a town so crammed with people trying to get discovered that they'll play for free.

And while the audience is far from rapt, they can be appreciative.

As Bontempi performed, a stocky guy with a beard walked by once, twice and a third time before finally setting down his bags and fixing his attention on the tiny stage.

The man, a 28-year-old welder from Sacramento, Calif., named Keith Branson, smiled and nodded with the music.

"At least now I can say I heard a country singer in Nashville," he said.